Blog

I picked up The Guardian this morning and read an interesting article by Mark Sweney about the Financial Times which plans to create an exclusive social network. The proposed scheme will be a membership only network costing a fee of £2k a year for each lucky networker. The Guardian describes the membership as including: “attendance at any one FT Global conference plus 20% off subsequent events, face-to-face members’ networking events and a 12-month premium subscription to FT.com.” Oh I think I should point out that the FTwill also be using your details to target you for anything they possibly can ... Read more

We seem to be getting bombarded with figures on circulations and readerships at the moment but I thought I would highlight a few interesting trends in the online media world which have made me think. Apparently, The Guardian has kept the number one online spot in the January ABCEs as it now has almost 18m unique users (jump of 24%). However, the Daily Mail seems to be catching it up with 17.9m. The Times, Telegraph and The Sun all jumped too. Online media usage is certainly growing in the UK and as the online figures are now finally being included ... Read more

I have just read an interesting post from Roy Gleenslade reporting that online unique users and circulation figures will now be added together in a new report format for the first time – this is a big step forward. He reports: “It will reveal that all-important measure known as “the reach” achieved by publications by detailing both month-on-month and year-on-year figures for on-line and newsprint. “The new “multi-platform monthly report” will also break out figures by geographical region; the UK, Republic of Ireland and other countries. “The initiative follows requests from advertisers, agencies and media owners because it will undoubtedly ... Read more

I have just read an interesting post on Tech Digest about a new start-up company called YouNoodle (I am loving the name) which claims it can predict the business successes of the future using artificial intelligence. The company has been created by two well educated Oxford graduates based in Silicon Valley The owners have pitched their company in a recent issue of the New York Times with founder Bob Goodson claiming: “YouNoodle.com, might give an edge to venture capitalists and other investors trying to decide whether to sink money into an early-stage company. “We don’t want to replace investors, we ... Read more

As predicted it seems Toshiba is about to throw in the towel with its HD DVD format. The BBC article reads: “”There have been media reports that Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD business,” a Toshiba spokesman said. “In fact, Toshiba has not made any announcement or decision. We are currently assessing our business strategies, but nothing has been decided at the moment.” Last month, Warner Brothers became the fifth Hollywood studio to throw its weight behind Sony’s Blu-ray format, leaving just Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures favouring HD DVD.   Analysts had seen this decision to switch allegiances as ... Read more

I have been contacted today and due to my interest in Netvibes, kindly asked if I would write about Pageflakes which is yet another Ajax based personalised homepage. I currently use Netvibes to access my email, Facebook, Twitter, weather, football and business news, YouTube and eBay – although I am considering ending my Poweseller status with eBay after the recent revelations on negative feedback which I wrote/ranted about recently. With Pageflakes, you can sign in quickly to the website, add url’s (‘flakes’) to your page (‘pagecast’), shuffle them around in priority of importance, create a snazzy background and off you ... Read more

A while ago I wrote on my blog that I felt Sony had got it right with Blu-Ray and they would win the battle of the two high definition DVD formats. Well as the battle has hotted up, it now appears that Blu-Ray really is beginning to dominate. According to reports Best Buy, which is the largest consumer electronics chain in the US, has stated it will not recommend HD DVD to its customers. It will still stock the HD DVD format but it will be given much less prominence. Best Buy’s president and chief operating officer Brian Dunn said: ... Read more

I have just read an article on BBC News informing me that eBay is to remove the opportunity for sellers to leave negative feedback for dodgy/bad buyers. I have been trading on eBay for the last three years and I am a powerseller with 100% positive feedback with more than (550 trades to my name), so I know a little about trading through the online auctioneer. I have to say I am pretty disgusted that they will be removing the two way feedback system. This system is what has made eBay successful – it’s at the very core of its ... Read more

Well after hearing a rave review from Chris Moyles and comedy Dave on  Radio 1 last week, I  decided to buy myself two tickets and venture out into the cold February night with my wife to watch the new Cloverfield movie – which started on Friday. You can watch the trailer first by clicking here. I was pretty excited as I like a good blockbuster disaster movie but I didn’t know anything about the plot or how the disaster materialised. If you are going to watch it and don’t want to know the plot line I would stop reading now. ... Read more

I am an eBay powerseller and I have been for the last 2 years. I sell pretty much everything although I have recently downsized what I sell due to my public relations commitments. I received an interesting press release which I have attached to this post about Typobuddy which to me sounds like a great idea. When you are a powerseller you are constantly listing different items with varying titles and descriptions and its quite easy to misspell a word. This new product/system claims to find you (the buyer) the best deal by tracking down the misspelt items you are ... Read more